Fusion Music by Truong Dinh Anh

Statement of Intention

s00039 — 2016-11-07 12:55:04 UTC

My goal is to make traditional Chinese music more relevant in today's generation by creating a piece that fuses traditional Chinese music and Jazz. Specifically, I want to make the tradional instruments of China popular again.
As times change, the tradional music in countries all over the globe is being lost. The newer generation is losing interest in the tradional music because it seems irrelevant, or there are more 'interesting' modern options. A large part of this is instrumental skills. I will create a fusion piece that brings the tradional instruments into Jazz, a modern genre of music.
The original purpose of tradional Chinese music was to express inner feelings, soothe and bring spiritual elevation. Many performed to communicate with spiritual beings and lovers. I will try to retain the purpose of the music through my fusion music by picking a Jazz piece that is aimed toward expressing love.

I want my audience (Students and teachers) to feel 'grooved' and to have the sense of the swing in the rhythm of the music. I also want them to think about the characteristics of the chinese instruments and their unique sounds. I hope to make my audience soothed with the Jazzy style mixed with the calming traidional Chinese instruments. When it comes to the elements of music, I will keep the swung or syncopated rhythms of the Jazz composition to give it the groovy feeling.
I will manipulate the timbre (tone color) to give it the unique sound by combining modern instruments with tradional Chinese ones. Some Chinese instruments vibrate the air in a unique way that give them their timbre. Next, i will try to keep the dynamics moderately soft to give it the soothing feeling.

7/11

s00039 — 2016-11-07 13:13:58 UTC

After researching, I found that the process of installing custom instruments into garageband is too complex and time consuming. However, I found that the latest version of Garageband has a few built-in traditional chinese instruments. These include the Pipa, Erhu and Traditional drum kit. With that, my plan is to give the erhu the melody and possibly the drum part the traditional drums.
I searched Youtube for some Jazz pieces that have a clear and catchy melody with an overall groove.
The piece that I decided on fusing is 'The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos Jonim. It is a Brazillian Bossa Nova Jazz piece. Although it was originally a lyrical piece, the instrumental arrangements still have the same groovy vibe to them. The score I plan on transcribing is at http://www.jobim.org/jobim/bitstream/handle/2010/14517/%C3%81lbum%20The%20Girl2.pdf?sequence=12
It has a very clear melody line and is easy to read.
I experimented with the score menu in garageband. I learnt how to add notes to the score and change the length of the notes. I currently plan on transcribing the majority of the piece with the score and some piano parts with the recording option.

9/11

s00039 — 2016-11-13 12:11:13 UTC

I completed the main melody of the piece (first 2 and a half lines of melody) today. I used the 'Steinway Grand Piano' software instrument when transcribing the piece instead of the Erhu because it is easier to detect pitch bends. For some reason, the pitch occasionally 'bends' and modulates. Using the internet, I found that there is a Pitch Bends section in garageband that can be used to get rid of it. I haven't found an option to turn pitch bend completely off, but I can select the parts with pitch bend and press backspace to delete them. This would've been harder to detect if I used the Erhu for transcribing.
I tried both recording and manually adding notes. I found that the notes often sound uneven with some much louder than others when using the record option and playing on the keyboard. On the other hand, adding notes manually to the score resulted in a completely smooth melody line. It takes more time to do it with the score, though. The rhythm often required a lot of fiddling to get correct.
I might continue to use the score just for the melody, since it is the most important part and should be the smoothest. For the background Piano part, I think I will record it. My goal for next class is to continue with melody and hopefully make a start to the piano part

Instrumental cover

s00039 — 2016-11-13 14:47:53 UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFbKKsEoQNg

Process Journal

s00039 — 2016-11-13 14:52:10 UTC

16/11

s00039 — 2016-11-16 13:07:07 UTC

I added a little bit to the melody of the piece and worked on the piano part. About 4 bars were completed for the piano part that accompanies the main melody, which can be heard in the first few seconds of the mp3 clip. I tried adding each note in individually but it took too much time. Instead, I recorded the piano part with the electric piano and editited the notes in the score section to make it more rhythmically accurate. However, the main drawback to doing this was that the notes sounded uneven; chords sounded significantly louder than single notes. However, this could be modified later on with the volume tool. As seen in the picture, all the notes for the piano part are in one staff. I couldn't find a way to split it into 2 like in the sheet music but I found that having all on one staff can be easier to adjust.
For the melody, I spent time trying to add triplets to one of the parts. I found that the easiest way to create triplets is to record it using a piano and pressing 'time quantize' under the score section with quarter note triplets selected. The last part of the clip was just some experimentation. The steady beat in the mp3 is the metronome, not the drum part.
My goal for next time is to complete another 5 bars of the piano part and possibly add a bit of the drum part for the class presentation.

mp3

s00039 — 2016-11-16 13:16:15 UTC

s00039 — 2016-11-16 13:20:04 UTC

18/11

s00039 — 2016-11-20 09:09:33 UTC

I added about 30 seconds of the piano part and started with some of the drum part today. Firstly I put in a few more bars of the melody. The parts of the melody that I added in today were similar in structure. They were mostly made up of a bar of triplets followed by a note held over a full bar. With that, I copied and pasted the triplet part I created last time. I tried recreating the triplets but it didn't turn out like I wanted and took too much time. After I copied and pasted, I simply changed the notes to match, while keeping the triplet rhythm untouched. This saved a lot of time.
For the piano part, there were also several repeats where I could copy previously made bars. For newer bars, I recorded 1 or 2 bars at a time ad edited them to match the score. I found that in the score section, the rhythm isn't precise even when edited. Some notes sound delayed and others come too soon. With that, I went in the 'Piano Role' menu where I could precisely edit the duration and timing of the notes. To do so, I dragged the thin green bars to snap onto the beat grid. Doing that fixed the delayed/early notes problem. Also, the later parts of the piano sounded much quieter than when I recorded it (as heard in the mp3). I tried solving this by selecting 'Volume' under the piano roll and selecting points above 1 decibel to increase the volume. It increased slightly but I will need to increase it more next time after hearing the mp3.
Next, i added a software instrument for the cymbal. I found that playing different notes on the keyboard sounded different parts of the drumkit. The cymbal was played by pressing B. Since the cymbal part for the majority of the piece is simply quavers, I recorded one bar of quavers and looped it through. It was looped by dragging the bar to the right. I only looped it a bit for testing. Next time I will continue with the piano and drum part.

mp3

s00039 — 2016-11-20 09:09:38 UTC

21/11

s00039 — 2016-11-21 12:23:15 UTC

What I had so far was shown in class. With the remaining time, I added the Chinese traditional drum kit in as a software instrument.The part of the drum I selected sounded the most similar to the bass drum, which is what this piece originally suggests. I played different notes on the keyboard which sounded different parts of the kit. The part that I chose could be heard when playing C on the keyboard. I think it was two octaves lower than middle C. The rhythm is simple with a dotted crotched followed by a quaver then two crotchets. By the looks of it, this rhythm extends through the entire piece. I was able to drag to out to loop it as seen in the image
I was only able to add 2 new bars to the piano part. I was facing issues with the keyboard. When it was pllugged in and turned on, the notes only registered as sounds for around 20 seconds before they were cut off. I solved this by switching to a different Mac with my USB plugged in it.
My goal for next class is to add at least 10 bars of the piano part and some bars to the melody.

23/11

s00039 — 2016-11-23 13:11:07 UTC

About 12 bars of the piano part were added today. The parts that I added had nearly identical rhythms from previous ones just with a different pitch. With that, I copied and pasted previous parts as templates and changed the notes to match the score. However, for parts with different rhythms, I recorded it using the keyboard. Oddly, there were two staves, treble and bass, in the socre when I recorded it today instead of just one, as seen in the image. Also, I found that the volume is still very soft in some parts of the piano part. The bass notes sound especially soft. Even after using the Volume tool under the piano role, I wasn't able to balance it out. I hit the increase limit at 6 decibels and it still sounded soft compared to before. I found out at the end of class that the volume can also be balanced by pressing the button on top of the tracks so that a yellow line appears on the track, as seen in the second track. I will experiment with this next time.
I also faced some problems with the pitch bend and modulation. The pitch sounded off sometimes when I recorded with the keybaord. Unlike before, nothing was showing when i went to the pitch bend or modulation menu. After recording those bars again, the pitch bend went away.
For the traditional drum kit part, I found that the rhythm does change in some parts such as in the middle of the piece. The changes are only slight, though. In the mp3, the drum part cannot be heard with the speakers. I found that they are only audible with earphones. This may be due to the low export quality I selected for email. If not, I will need to make the traditional drum louder.
The goal for next time is to fix the uneven dynamics, apply the rhythm changes in the drum part and continue with the piano part. The piano part should be easier from this point because of repeats.

mp3

s00039 — 2016-11-27 08:27:14 UTC

s00039 — 2016-11-27 08:29:36 UTC

s00039 — 2016-11-27 08:29:54 UTC

28/11

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:17:48 UTC

copy pasting
I have done some adjusting to the dynamics of the piano and drum part. For the piano part, I found that the whole middle part was softer than the first part. Since I couldn't make it any louder (+6dB max) I made the first part softer to balance it out. It sounded better afterwards but there were a still some bars that sounded a bit too 'bright' and loud compared to others. I used the volume line to adjust this, as seen in the picture. For the traditional drum kit, I made the whole track louder. I wanted it to be heard easily because it is one of the traditional Chinese intstruments in the piece. Since the intention of the project is to bring these intruments into the modern society, I want them to stand out slightly. The drums can be heard without earrphones now.

I added multiple lines of the melody and piano part. For the melody, some of it was identical to the first part. However, there were a number of bars that were different and required new recordings. The piano parts for this section were also mostly the same. However, the major change is the small solo part after the repeat of the melody. This solo part consisted of chords mainly with some bass notes. Since it was completely different, I recorded it. For the cymbal and traditional drum part, There were only 2 or 3 bars that were different, one of which contained triplets. No changes to the plan were made today
My goal for next time is to get close to completing both the melody and piano lines.

30/11

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:17:57 UTC

I have reached the end of the melody and only a few bars left for the piano part. There were a number of repeats in the melody containing triplets in the second half of the bar. Also, there was a key change in the melody from F major to A flat major. A lot of the melody for this part had the same rhythm as the first part. I figured that I could save time by copying a large section of melody from the first part to this last part and dragging it up 3 semi-tones. This worked out and all the notes matched with the score. The piano part was similar and I was able to move a number of bars up by 3 semitones. However, there were also new bars which I recorded and manually added.
In the MP3 it can be heard that the note at 1:15 sounds 'flat' and out of tune. This was the case for a number of G's toward the end. At first I thought it was the modulation. However, I found out that it was actually the pitch bend again. I got rid of the flat sound by removing the pitch bend. However, I missed the one at 1:15. This will be fixed next time.
For the duration of the piece, I checked by changing the time from bars to minutes. The whole piece with the finished melody was exactly 2 minutes, which reaches the minimum. However, I plan on adding the small 'introduction' which is around 5 bars, and should add at least 10 seconds.
My goal for next time is to reach the end with the 2 drum parts and the piano part. If possible, the introduction will be started on.

2/11

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:18:00 UTC

I have reached the end with all parts. Firstly, I worked on finishing the piano line. There were some bars that were different that required recording, but there were also repeats, which I could copy and paste. I also finished the drum part. For the last line, the lines for the drum parts are in unison and contain mainly minims, which were added manually because they were easy. For the final 2 bars, I felt that it was too fast and abrupt, and ritardando was needed. To do this, I had to purposely go slightly off beat and gradually slow down. I turned the metronome off and used the piano roll where all the notes were displayed in the green lines. I had to measure how much off the beat I was in the piano part to make sure that I was off the beat but still synchronized with the other parts. For example, I made one of the final notes 1 semiquaver to the right of the first beat. I had to go the traditional drum kit and cymbal part to make sure that they were both off by 1 semiquaver in the same place. This worked out and sounded much more like a proper ending.
At this point I am definitely planning on adding the intro. I am also thinking about adding an extra instrument, the Pipa, to play the bass guitar line. This would be good because it supports the artistic intention of bringing traditional pieces back to life. However, I'm afraid there might not be enough time to add all the bars for a new instrument, even though it's a monophonic part. Next time I will complete the introduction and decide whether or not to add the Pipa.

5/11

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:19:26 UTC

I added the short 6 bar introduction for the Piano and Cymbal. The cymbal part was very easy, as it was just a note on each beat. As for the piano, I first recorded the melody because it contained thirds, which could not be added manually. From there, I added the remaining chords to fill in. Because the melody was recorded, it sounds slightly uneven in dynamics, with some notes suddenly louder than others.
The 'flat' sounding G note in the Erhu part was also fixed by getting rid of the pitch bend there. As seen in the picture, I added some dynamics in the introduction and the first bar of the melody.For the introduction, I put some decrescendo for the cymbal at the end to 'prepare' for the melody. I did this because I wanted the melody of the Erhu to stand out frmo the rest when it joins in, to make the audience think about the sound of the unique instrument. To balance it, a added crescendo to the previous parts toward the second bar of the main melody. I did the same thing for the traditional drum kit and made it start softly and gradually get louder.
I was able to add over half of the part for the Pipa. I found that the Pipa part, although it spans the entire piece, didn't use many new notes that had to be added in or recorded. It was simply the piano part with the bass line and no chords. I copied the piano part, got rid of the chords, and dragged it down onto the Pipa track. Because of this, most of it was in bass cleff. I moved everything up by one octave to match the score as seen. There were only small parts where the Pipa had slightly different notes, usually where the Piano had an octave jump.
The Pipa definitely sounds too loud and dominant right when the main melody starts. It is just as loud as the Erhu when it should be softer because it is a supporting instrument. Also, I forgot to ease it in like the other lines which made it join abruptly and suddenly. I will need to fix this next time. The Pipa was also too loud compared to the piano in parts such as 1:25 in the mp3.
My goal for next time is to complete all the notes of the piece with the Pipa and to balance the volume.

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:34:10 UTC

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:37:42 UTC

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:38:50 UTC

s00039 — 2016-12-05 12:40:06 UTC

7/12

s00039 — 2016-12-08 12:49:34 UTC

Today I finished the part for the Pipa and adjusted the volume of some parts. I continued to use the previous method and used the bass line of the piano part. As for dynamics, I made the Pipa start softer when the main melody of the Erhu starts, after the short introduction. I gave it crescendo to match the other instruments. I found that the dynamics of the Pipa line were inconsistent. In some bars it was significantly louder or softer. I think it has to do with the way I recorded the piano part using the keyboard, as the pipa part is the piano one just without the chords. I had to make multiple small adjustments in some bars to balance the overall dynamics.

I received feedback from Gumin and Geon. Gumin enjoyed the melody and mentioned that the 'bass drum' or Chinese drum kit part had good dynamics. He explained by saying it wasn't too loud or soft. However, he would've liked the cymbal to be louder overall, as it can barely be heard sometimes. Also, he found the piece to be repetitive and suggested me to use less repeats.

I mostly agree with Gumin's feedback. I agree with all the suggestions in regards to the dynamics. However, I don't completely agree with the piece being too repetetive. There are no repeat signs in the piece, but the melody is repeated multiple times. There wouldn't be a way for me to remove the repeats, as each part flows into the next. In the second half of the piece, the melody is played in a completely different key with a slightly different rhythm, which makes it less repetetive.

Geon described the piece as groovy and catchy. He suggested me to make the drum part louder. When i asked him which part of the world he thought the instruments came from, he was able to correctly guess Asia.
After the break I will add some final touches to the piece by making some parts louder as suggested. I will also continue to balance the Pipa part.

11/1

s00039 — 2017-01-14 09:21:21 UTC

I spent most of today's class working on the final touches with adjustments in dynamics. Firstly, in the small part in the middle before the melody repeats (page 9 of the score), I made the Pipa louder so that it wasn't drowned by the piano's part. I used the volume control line as last time to do this (as seen in the 1st image). I did this because these few lines don't contain the Erhu. Due to this, I made the piano part louder previously. To balance this out, I made the pipa louder. I also made the cymbal and drumkit slightly louder based on the feedback from before.
I also added some dynamics to the ascending notes of the 7th page. Because I manually added notes using the score for that part, the dynamics were completely flat. To make it less flat, I added crescendo to the ascending notes of the melody (seen in 2nd image). I listened to the ending and found that notes from different instrument parts were not perfectly together. I purposely put some ritardando in the final bar because it felt too fast and abrupt without it. However, by decreasing the tempo, I had to go slightly off the beat. I tried roughly syncing up the different tracks by ear but it didn't turn out perfect. To improve it, today I dragged the vertical line (line that shows which part of the music you are on) to exactly where the beginning of each note was in the piano part. I then switched to a different track with a different instrument selected and adjusted the notes so they met the verical line. I did this for all the different instruments, including the drumkit and cymbal.

Next time, I will work go over the piece and make small adjustments in dynamics where necessary.

16/1 Final

s00039 — 2017-01-16 12:16:16 UTC

I made the introduction slightly softer overall. I focused on making some of the notes less sudden and intrusive. Last time, some of the ascending notes in the introduction sounded accented which made the line less smooth. I think the introduction now sounds noticeably smoother than before. I spent some time fixing small mistakes in the piano part. When looking through the piano roll in Garageband, I found that there were some small notes that were mistakes that were together with the correct ones. This was likely from me pressing two keys when I was supposed to press one during the recording, since the electronic keyboard is sensitive.
I had to research how to export the videos in garageband, since there was no clear export option. To export to a high quality mp3 file, I had to go into share then click "export to disk". There, I saved it to my USB. I did this instead of emailing myself because it seems to be higher quality.

I have successfully created a piece of fusion music that incorporates traditional Chinese music with a more modern and popular genre of music, Jazz. Through this process I have manipulated the tambre with the change in instruments to give it the Chinese character. After listening to the final product, I do feel the groove of the music. Looking from the perspective of a person listening to it for the first time, the introduction seems usual but it would really strike them when the Chinese instruments join in. They will likely be thinking about the sound of the traditional instruments, as I intended.

s00039 — 2017-01-16 12:19:35 UTC

s00039 — 2017-01-17 14:03:27 UTC

s00039 — 2017-01-17 14:05:42 UTC

s00039 — 2017-01-17 14:44:22 UTC

(S.O. Intention Requirements)

s00039 — 2017-01-18 07:03:39 UTC

· Explanation of the elements of music and how you intend to use them to create your fusion music

· An outline of how you intend to use the music to make the audience feel a certain way.

· Comments on what you are trying to communicate – to the audience – use these starters to help:

 We want the audience to understand/think ….

 We want the audience to feel….

 Our main message is….

- We are trying to communicate ….

Self-assessment

s00039 — 2017-01-20 05:45:41 UTC

I think the piece is successful at making traditional Chinese instruments popular again. I have used 3 different instruments; the Pipa, Erhu and Chinese drum kit. These instruments were replaced with modern ones which changes gives it its unique tone color. The piece chosen was related to romance. One of the original purposes of Chinese music was to communicate with spiritual beings and loved ones. The purpose is retained because the Jazz piece I used is also related to love. Jazz is also a modern genre of music which means the piece is suitable for the modern world.
The volume of the separate tracks are balanced and the melody, played by the Erhu, stands out from the rest. The Pipa, another instrument I wanted to highlight can be heard quite clearly in nearly all of the piece with only the piano drowning out it sound in some small parts. The Chinese instruments join in smoothly and it isn't sudden. There are also dynamics to the melody which prevents it from sounding flat. For example, the middle section has multiple crescendos for ascending notes. However, the dynamics of the supporting part are not completely smooth. Occasionally there are single notes or small phrases that are suddenly louder. Sometimes there are also bars that sound significantly softer, which can be heard about one third of the way through, after the main melody has repeated itself. These small parts with sudden dynamic changes take away from the overall dynamics of the supporting tracks. The introduction also doesn't sound smooth with some notes still much louder than the rest.
The different parts of the piece are together and in time, except for the ending with the purposeful slowing down.
The tempo of the piece is adequate. It is around the speed of most recordings of the Jazz piece. It doesn't seem too slow or rushed. However, traditional Chinese music often contains expression, rubato and freedom in time. Here, everything is precisely in time, which is suitable for this particular Jazz piece but isn't for the tradional music.
There is also an obvious mistake 45 with either the Pipa or piano that wasn't caught during the process.

Overall, the piece does fuse traditional Chinese music with Jazz by swapping out the majority of the modern instrument for traditional ones. It also retains one of the main purposes of the traditional music. However, more elements of music could've been maniuplated to bring more from the traditional music and make the piece more fused. For example, I could've followed the traditional pattern for dynamics so that the beginning and end are louder than the middle, to give it the 'grand' feeling.

Assessment of David's piece

s00039 — 2017-01-20 05:46:17 UTC

I think this piece is somewhat successful with fusing traditional chinese music and EDM. Here, the tambre has been manipulated with the main melody. The Pipa has been swapped with vocals and is the main instrument that gives the piece its Chinese character.Knowing that the piece fused is 'Demons', my focus was on the Pipa the majority of the time. This meets the intention of your piece which was to bring the traditional instruments back to modern day, because I was thinking about the Pipa more than anything else.
The individual tracks of the piece are consistently in time with the beat, which is suitable to EDM. There are a large variety of different instruments used that are appropriate to the EMD genre. The use of the different tracks creates good texture, as they all 'layer' on each other. Texture is also built up in parts and there is some difference. For example, when the faster part of the melody starts (about the 9th bar in) an extra percussion track also joins in to add to the texture. tracks also join in quite well because they aren't sudden and stop the flow of the music. I liked how there was a 'Dubstep Laser' effect near the beginning to introduce a new track. There is some change in texture in bar 41 with the new synth track taking over the support. However, I felt like some of the tracks/loops were too repetetive because they lasted the whole piece. Although texture is developed in some areas, I would suggest making using less of the same tracks throughout to make it less repetitive to the listener.
The dynamics of the piece sound balanced and the melody is clear. I felt like none of the tracks drowned the melody. Because of this, the melody stands out and is supported well when it comes to dynamics. However, you mentioned that one of the main characteristics of EDM is the crescendo to a climax and a 'drop' I found that the dynamics of all the tracks were flat and did not change. There was also no beat drop. To improve on this, you should build the texture together with dynamics to the climax. Also, the start could've been a bit more eased in because when I first listened to it, I thought I was in the middle of the piece.
The tracks were in time and on the beat. However, the overall tempo felt a bit too slow, especially for EDM. This could make the listener lose interest during the piece because it nearly sounds 'mechanical'. However, this slow tempo could be due to the song choice, as the melody was the part that sounded the slowest
The harmonies of the different parts matched well in some parts such as around bar 23 in your garageband. However, I found the the synth or the guitar after the first 2 bars at the start did not fit with the melody, and sounded like they were part of a different harmony.
Your target was to make the instruments popular again. Although you did use the Pipa for the main melody, you could've use a larger number of Chinese instruments to give it more of the Chinese character. Your piece can be considered fusion music but the only part that makes it Chinese is the melody line. Also, in bar 28 (precisely the middle of the piece) the Pipa suddenly changes tone color to a piano-like instrument. This does not fit and disturbs the flow of the melody. After the few bars of the piano sounding instrument, the melody returns to the Pipa.
Finally, how has your piece kept the original 'message' or intention of Chinese pieces? Your fusion of EDM is suitable for the modern world but how could you show its original message(s)?

2023-10-31 13:36:09 UTC

Gay